Who invented the shoe with a wheel in the heel?
Roger Adams was a psychologist in his forties when he cut the heel out of a sneaker and fitted a wheel into the hole. Skating was the family trade: his parents ran a roller rink in Tacoma, Washington, and he grew up on wheels.
Sources disagree on when the idea arrived. The New York Times obituary published in April 2026 places it on a 1998 vacation in California, watching skaters and cyclists roll past. The Heelys brand's own site puts the scene in Huntington Beach in 1999.
He patented the design in 1999 and launched Heelys in 2000 through Heeling Sports Limited, based in Carrollton, Texas, just north of Dallas. The engineering was the selling point: one wheel seated in a removable cassette in each heel, so a child could walk normally, shift weight back and roll, then pop the wheel out and drop in a plug when an adult objected.
Adams died of pancreatic cancer on March 24, 2026 at his home in Glenbrook, Nevada, at the age of 71, according to the same New York Times obituary.
How big did the wheeled-shoe boom get in 2006?
Enormous, and almost overnight. Heelys sold 1.4 million pairs in 2005 and 6.2 million pairs in 2006, an increase of 338.1 percent in a single year, according to the company's Form 10-K for fiscal 2006.
Net sales followed the same curve, from $44.0 million in 2005 to $188.2 million in 2006, a rise of 328.2 percent. Domestic sales made up $161.3 million of that, and US retail customers accounted for 85.7 percent of the year's net sales. Retail price points ran from $49.99 to $89.99, roughly $80 to $145 in 2026 dollars.
The company took that curve to the Nasdaq. Heelys, Inc. priced its initial public offering at $21.00 a share in December 2006 under the ticker HLYS, above the $16 to $18 range in its earlier filings, raising close to $135 million. The Motley Fool reported the stock opening at $30.30 on its first day of trading in December 2006.
Toy booms of that decade ran on the same fuel, a cheap object other kids could see you had, which is what drove the Beanie Babies bubble a decade earlier. They tended to break the same way.
Why did schools start banning Heelys?
Because children were rolling down hallways into other children. By August 21, 2006, the Deseret News reported that schools across Utah's Wasatch Front had banned athletic shoes with wheels in the heel, and that teachers at one elementary school had been arguing about a ban since 2003.
What ended the argument there was a broken arm. "We had an incident at school where a student was riding their Heelys and fell back and broke their arm," Reed Hodson, principal at Highland Elementary, told the Deseret News in 2006.
Emergency rooms saw the same pattern. A study of one English emergency department published in the Emergency Medicine Journal in 2008 counted 35 children with Heelys injuries between December 26, 2006 and April 26, 2007, mean age 9.6 years. A fall onto an outstretched hand caused 20 of the 35, and the most common diagnosis was a fracture of the distal radius, in 10 cases. "None of the children included in this study were using safety equipment at the time of the injury," the authors wrote.
There was never a national ban in the United States, which is why the question still gets typed into search engines twenty years later. In 2026 the rule lives in each school's handbook: some districts prohibit all wheeled footwear, others allow the shoes as long as the wheels stay out and the heel plugs stay in.
How fast did the money disappear after 2007?
Faster than it arrived. Net sales were $183.5 million in 2007, essentially flat against 2006, then fell to $70.7 million in 2008, a drop of $112.7 million or 61.4 percent, as retailers worked through inventory nobody wanted.
2009 was worse at home. Net sales came to $43.8 million for the year, with domestic sales of $15.2 million against $37.1 million in 2008, and international sales of $28.6 million. The company lost $5.1 million in 2009 after losing $5.9 million in 2008.
That is 77 percent of annual revenue gone in two years, on tooling and distribution built for the 2006 number. The stock never recovered, and Heelys spent the next three years as a licensing operation sitting on a large pile of cash.
Sequential Brands Group agreed in December 2012 to buy the whole company at $2.25 a share, about $63 million, and shareholders approved the deal in January 2013. Heelys held roughly $57.5 million in cash at closing, so Sequential later put the net purchase price of the brand itself at about $5.5 million. It is the standard shape of a novelty mistaken for a category, the same arc that turned the Segway into a mall-security vehicle.
Is the Heelys brand still a going concern in 2026?
Yes, under a different owner. BBC International bought Heelys from Sequential Brands Group for $11 million in cash in a sale announced on April 26, 2021, and it had been the brand's core footwear licensee since 2013, so the shoes never stopped shipping during the handover.
"We believe the brand is in great hands under BBC's leadership going forward," William Sweedler, executive chairman of Sequential Brands Group, said in the April 2021 announcement. Sequential filed for Chapter 11 on August 31, 2021, four months later, and its plan of liquidation took effect on March 3, 2022. The sale outlasted the seller.
Heelys are still made and sold new in the United States in 2026, in one-wheel and two-wheel versions, through heelys.com and chains including Walmart. Current models on the brand's own site list at about $60 to $75, with the Pro 25 and the Reebok Club C collaboration at $70. The brand still runs limited drops: in May 2025 it released a White Castle collection at $75 a pair, sold only on heelys.com and timed to National Slider Day.
Where to find a pair today: new is the cheap route, roughly $60 to $75 for a current model from a US retailer, with the wheels and plugs in the box. Discontinued 2000s colorways, spare wheel cassettes and Heelys-era merchandise turn up on Etsy's marketplace, which is a better place to look for the original styling than a single listing that disappears.
They also outlasted most of what shared a shelf with them. Tamagotchi and Heelys are two of the very few 1990s and 2000s crazes you can still buy new, from the original brand, in a US store in 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Heelys still sold in 2026?
Yes. Heelys, the sneakers with a removable wheel in the heel that Roger Adams launched in 2000, are still manufactured and sold new in the United States in 2026, in one-wheel and two-wheel models, with current styles listing at about $60 to $75 on heelys.com.
Who owns Heelys now?
BBC International owns Heelys. It bought the brand from Sequential Brands Group for $11 million in cash in a sale announced on April 26, 2021, after acting as the brand's core footwear licensee since 2013. Sequential had bought Heelys, Inc. outright in a deal agreed in December 2012 and closed in January 2013.
Why were Heelys banned in schools?
American schools began banning Heelys in 2006 and 2007 over hallway collisions, falls and marks left on gym floors. The Deseret News reported on August 21, 2006 that schools across Utah's Wasatch Front had prohibited them. There was never a national ban, and in 2026 the rule still varies by district, with many schools allowing the shoes only with the wheels removed.